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Coordinating distributed processes, especially engineering and software design processes, has been a research topic for some time now. Several approaches have been published that aim at coordinating large projects in general, and large software development processes in specific. However, most of these approaches focus on the technical part of the design process and omit management activities like planning and scheduling the project, or monitoring it during execution. In this paper, we focus on coordinating the management activities that accompany the technical software design process. We state the requirements for a Software Engineering Environm ent (SEE) accommodating management, and we describe a possible architecture for such an SEE.

In this paper, we present an approach to support distributed planning and scheduling, as well as the subsequent (also distributed) plan execution, in one system. The system will support the distributed planners and schedulers by providing task agendas for them, stating who needs to plan which tasks, and sending change notifications and warnings, if a planning or scheduling decision needs to be updated. The plan built using these mechanisms is then enacted by a workflow engine in the same system. This approach enables us to support interleaved planning and plan enactment, allowing the user to change the plan and schedule while the project is already under way. Deviations of the actual project enactment from the plan and schedule can automatically be detected, and necessary notifications will be sent to the concerned planner(s). This again facilitates the task of keeping the plan up to date, avoiding the complete invalidation of the plan as is often the case in conventional projects soon after enactment has started.

This paper summarizes the work presented at the WETICE '98 workshop on "Coordinating Distributed Software Development Projects" as well as the ensuing discussions that arose in the course of the workshop.